1. Field
The present invention relates to the field of managing network traffic in a network device and in particular to adjusting queue priorities among different network interfaces based on traffic demand.
2. Related Art
Network traffic systems typically present several network interfaces that all share resources. In order to maximize the speed of the system, all of the interfaces must be occupied all of the time. However, the traffic presented at each interface will depend upon the demand presented by the corresponding nodes to which the interface is connected. These traffic demands are likely to change over time and change differently from the traffic presented at other interfaces.
In order to obtain equilibrium in the traffic at each interface, complex system software is used. The system software may also interact with customized hardware support to monitor an entire local area network or networking system. The system then performs calculations to determine the distribution of network packet loads at each network interface in the entire system. Using this information, the system's network routing table can be changed to balance out the load across all of the interconnected routers or switches.
The system software in many instances gathers its needed information by continuously polling each and every router for network traffic information.